Enzo, Yang Wei, Yang Bang and Murong Parrot walked into the conference room, and the life of the voyage in the past two years left a clear mark on their bodies. Everyone was lean and lean, and their skin was tanned by the scorching sun of the sea.

Orderly stood up, "Gentlemen, please greet our warriors!" ”

Everyone smiled and applauded the returning warriors.

"You may be seated, I'm sorry." Shou Xu's tone was a little hurried, "I just entered the port and asked you to come to the meeting, so I can't give you time to rest." ”

Enzo: "It's okay, Archon. We can't wait to report on the voyage. ”

"Very well, gentlemen, let's get started."

Murong Parrot opened the leather bag he was carrying and took out a thick nautical diary.

Orderly, cherished, and cherished.

Along with the nautical diary, there is a stack of atlases.

Murong Parrot flipped over one by one, "Archon, we present Dragonstone Island and King's Landing to you. ”

"Good work."

Orderly looked at the charts marked with compass points, declinations, and latitude and longitude lines. I felt a little melancholy in my heart, I should have become one of them, but now I can only sit back and enjoy it.

Murong Parrot: "As long as the weather permits, I will use the track estimation and the celestial clock method to calculate the longitude separately every day, and compare it with the longitude calculated by Enzo to find the reason for the difference. The judgments of the officers' council are written in the nautical diary, and we cannot guarantee the accuracy, so we can only do our best. ”

There are many reasons that can lead to errors in longitude calculations, some are ocean currents, some are the observation itself, and some are complex calculations that are difficult to find an accurate solution. The reality is that the order knows this very well. One of the keys to exploring the Taiwan-Australia-New Zealand route is to reproduce the longitude data by this method. Looking at the carefully hand-drawn charts, Shou Xuan knew that Murong Parrot had done his best.

Collingwood sighed with emotion: "Mr. Murong, the Navy is honored to have an officer like you. If given the opportunity, I hope to sail with you on this newly opened route. ”

Murong Parrot: "I'm looking forward to it, sir. But I may have to wait a little longer, and after this round trip, I feel that there are still many sections of the route that can be optimized. ”

Collingwood smiled and said, "I'm not in a hurry, Mr. Murong. In the process of perfecting your route, please feel free to let us know if you need any help. ”

"Thank you, sir."

Shou Xun quickly finished reading the briefing and handed it to Maiden.

"Enzo, are you saying that Old Wu stayed in King's Landing?"

Enzo quickly stood up, "I'm sorry, sir, Captain Wu stayed in Australia because I lost the USS Reef West. ”

"It's inevitable that you will be shipwrecked during the expedition, but are your casualties great?" ”

Enzo: "The West Reef ran aground, but thankfully there were no casualties. ”

Boggs handed Enzo a glass of water, "Sit down, start from the beginning." ”

"Thank you," Enzo calmed down and reminisced, "the year before last, during the north wind, we set sail from the port of Nanao to find our first target, Dragonstone, as planned. With exact latitude and longitude, the location of Dragonstone is not hard to find, and we found gold. ”

The members of the Council were in good spirits.

Yang Wei took out a huge piece of dog's head gold from his bag, "Gold raw ore." Dragonstone Island is 22 kilometers long and 14.5 kilometers long, the highest mountain on the island is 700 meters, and the environment is generally good, with heavy rainfall and forests. There are also many hot springs on the island, so be careful that some cracks in the ground will seep out of the sulphur and poisonous gas, so don't go close. ”

Enzo nodded, "We've been exploring near Dragonstone for half a year, there are two large islands southwest of Dragonstone, the smaller one is closer to Dragonstone, only 27 nautical miles, and the island has several harbors suitable for mooring. We landed for a preliminary survey, and the land was fertile and suitable for farming. ”

The new island of Ireland is the road of order, and the larger is the island of New Britain. New Britain Island is left alone for the time being, the southern part of New Ireland Island has rugged terrain and average value, and the area directly opposite Dragonstone Island in the north is relatively flat. If the Dragonstone gold mines were to be mined, the new island of Ireland would have to be occupied and exploited to provide food for the gold mines.

Curious, Allemand asked, "Why did you stay near Dragonstone for half a year?" ”

"We set out too late, and when we found Dragonstone, we estimated the rest of the voyage, and we certainly wouldn't be able to reach King's Landing before the end of the north wind season. We didn't want to return halfway, so the expedition's officers' council collectively deliberated and stayed at Dragonstone Island for the time being, waiting for the next northerly wind. ”

"There are some indigenous people on the island of Ireland who are more friendly, and we have exchanged some food from the island. Fish is abundant in the vicinity, and there are many edible fruits such as coconuts and breadfruit on the island. We used that time to replenish supplies and explore nearby shipping lanes. ”

Enzo: "Thankfully, we made that decision. According to our half-year observations, the summer in the northern hemisphere, that is, the winter in the southern hemisphere, is dominated by southeasterly winds. Southeasterly winds mean that the rugged rocky coast of New Guinea and the reef-strewn waters to the south will be downwind coasts. The prevailing winds pushed the ship against the rocks, and the risk of running aground on the shores of the island of New Guinea was great if returning from King's Landing. In fact, we believe that the farther away from the mainland and New Guinea is the better. ”

Shou Zhi nodded, he knew the experience. During their stay on Tonga, the Tasman expedition had a long discussion about the direction of return, and they touched the reef once, but fortunately did not cause much damage, and then Tasman chose to sail away from New Guinea. On that voyage, Enzo was involved in a discussion meeting with Tasman.

Enzo continued: "Last year we headed south from Dragonstone Island to the southeast during the north wind, where the reef and island groups had an open opening that used to be safer. ”

Allemand compared the charts for a while, "Consul, follow the route Enzo said, and try to avoid the southeastern part of the island of New Guinea, so that the fleet will not have to pass through several dangerous straits, and we can appropriately reduce the investment in building the fortress line." ”

Orderly: "If you choose this route, will there be obstacles in the wind direction in some of the sections?" ”

Allemand: "I think it's a good deal compared to the money saved on the fortifications. ”

Murong Parrot: "That's exactly what I wanted to optimize the route, Dragonstone is too small to miss when sailing in the open sea, so our first voyage was along the Philippines, the Maluku Islands and the island of New Guinea, all the way to the shore. Now we know the location of the two large islands near Dragonstone, which means we can take a straight line from Taipei to the southeast, avoiding the treacherous Philippine coast and saving the voyage. ”

That's true, but there are some dangers to going to the open sea.

"Then do as you say, there are still a few years to calculate the track more accurately." ”

Magnetic declination and ocean currents, running for a few years to find out the general situation, supplemented by track speculation, the probability of missing the new island of Ireland and the island of New Britain at the same time is not very large.

The rest of the voyage was delivered by Yang Wei.

"Heading southeast from Dragonstone out of the reef group, we turned due south. After the latitude of the Great Barrier Reef to the west, it soon found the coast of Australia. We found a southward current, which was not fast, but it helped us a lot. The voyage went all the way to this point, and it was basically smooth. ”

East Australian Warm Current.

"The land north of King's Landing is not very high, and it seems to be the most barren part of this coast we have ever passed. The land is somewhat desertified, and in several places it is almost a contiguous barren land. The rest of the place was full of low trees or shrubs, and we didn't see any signs of inhabitation.

There are many bays there, and probably for this reason, the direction of the tide is very unfixed, to the east, to the northeast and even in the opposite direction to the waves. We proceeded cautiously, avoiding reefs and undercurrents, landing on the shore several times.

The vast majority of land near the sea, and even parts of the interior, is a crumbly, loose sandy soil. Heading south, the land becomes fertile and overgrown with trees, grass, and shrubs. The coast has a lot of hills and peaks, with patches of woods and meadows, and some hills are completely covered with lush trees. The overall landform, there are not many mountains, only a small part of the surface, and more plains and valleys. They are staggered, separating the hills from the peaks. There is no shortage of fresh water here, and there are many streams and springs, even during the dry season. ”

Enzo adds: "Later we found out that during the rainy season, the lowlands and valleys of the sea are submerged and the creeks become big rivers. ”

Maiden: "In other words, you have the foundation for agriculture? ”

"Yes, the conditions for animal husbandry are also good. There are a lot of pastures along the coast of Eastern Australia, and we think that it is a good land for horse grazing, so it is recommended to transport horses to Australia as soon as possible. Even if it is free-range, the animal power obtained will be of great help. ”

Maiden nodded as he jotted down the main points in his notebook.

The eastern coast of Australia is not as barren and miserable as the western coast once described by the Dutch. Many of the plants grow very luxuriantly there, and in this vast land, cereals, fruits, and all the tubers and so on, grow very well. All it takes is someone to bring them here, plant them and nurture them carefully. If someone brings livestock here, there will be no shortage of forage all year round.

Yang Wei continued, "We are very happy to have discovered a piece of land with great development value. ”

"I'll talk about it later," Enzo picked up, looking a little remorseful, "we found the sea port of King's Landing, and everyone was in a state of joy. That's when tragedy struck. ”

"I didn't notice that there were a lot of broken waves near the coast. I sent two dinghys to the front to mark the shoals. After passing through the rapids, the dinghy continues to indicate the waterway into the harbor. At this time, the wind was blowing stronger and stronger, the ship lost control, and did not stop twice, entangled between the rapids and the broken waves, and the West Reef was unfortunately pushed downwind by the wind and waves, and hit the reef on the shore. ”

Yang Wei sighed, "I was on the West Reef at the time, and we avoided dangerous undercurrents, unpredictable tides, and even narrowly avoided two groundbreaks. But he fell only 10 nautical miles from his destination. ”

Enzo regretted it, "I surveyed the area many times afterwards and found that if we were careful to find a better shipping lane, we could have avoided tragedy. ”

Shou Xiang waved his hand, "Accidents are always inevitable, as long as you are okay." What about Lao Wu, he stayed in Australia afterwards? ”

"Yes, immediately after the accident of the West Reef, we began to drain the water, and with the help of the Louvre, the West Reef was towed out of the predicament and the ship was briefly repaired. Because it was not far from the target, the West Reef continued to sail while discharging. There are many beaches that are suitable for lifting the bottom of the boat, and we took advantage of the tide to run the West reef aground for inspection. ”